Total online job ads were 4,374,400 in May, an increase of 9,000 or 0.2 percent from April, according to The Conference Board Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series(TM). Online advertised vacancies continue to be up substantially (29 percent) over the year (May'06 - May'07). There were 2.9 advertised vacancies online for every 100 persons in the labor force in May.

"Although online job ads were virtually unchanged in May, they have expanded rapidly in recent months and continue to run substantially above last year's level," said Gad Levanon, Economist at The Conference Board. "Several factors are at work here. Booming industries like healthcare, and hot occupations like IT and business managers, advertise heavily online while industries like construction and manufacturing that have turned down in the last year have historically made less use of online job advertising. Online job advertising isn't likely to weaken significantly as long as the industries/occupations that recruit heavily online continue to remain strong."

THE NATIONAL PICTURE

The 4,374,400 unduplicated online advertised vacancies in May include 2,812,900 new ads that did not appear in April, as well as reposted ads from the previous months. During May, total ads increased by only 0.2 percent and new ads declined 3 percent from the previous month. Over the year (May'06 - May'07) total ads and new ads rose 29 percent and 24 percent, respectively.

The May figures reported in the Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series(TM) reflect the sum of the number of unduplicated online job ads for each day from mid- April to mid-May. This new series, which includes data from April 2005, does not have sufficient history to allow for seasonally adjusted monthly data.

In May, the fastest monthly growth was in the West South Central region (up 5 percent) with more modest gains in the Mountain, West North Central and North and South Central regions). Regions posting declines included the New England, Middle Atlantic, and South Atlantic regions with the largest decline in the Pacific region (down 2 percent).